MANUAL

The information in this document is subject to change without notice and does not represent a
commitment on the part of Native Instruments GmbH. The software described by this document is
subject to a License Agreement and may not be copied to other media. No part of this publication
may be copied, reproduced or otherwise transmitted or recorded, for any purpose, without prior
written permission by Native Instruments GmbH, hereinafter referred to as Native Instruments. All
product and company names are or trademarks of their respective owners.
Manual written by Matthew Jackson
Document Version: 1.1 (06/2010)
Product Version: 1.0 (09/2009)
Special thanks to the Beta Test Team, who were invaluable not just in tracking down bugs, but in
making this a better product.

Germany
Native Instruments GmbH
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Germany
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www.native-instruments.de

USA
Native Instruments North America, Inc.
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Los Angeles, CA 90028
USA
sales@native-instruments.com
www.native-instruments.com

Native Instruments GmbH, 2010. All rights reserved.

Table Of Contents
1 Welcome to THE FINGER!....................................................................................................5
2 Content Description...........................................................................................................6
3 Interface Overview.............................................................................................................8
3.1

Twister Section........................................................................................................9

3.2

Global Envelope Section......................................................................................... 10

3.3

Keys Effect Parameters Section............................................................................. 11

3.4

Modulation Envelope Section.................................................................................. 12

3.5

Mod Wheel Section................................................................................................ 13

3.6

Velocity Section..................................................................................................... 14

3.7

Key Trigger Section................................................................................................ 15

3.8

Edit Section........................................................................................................... 17

4 Use Cases....................................................................................................................... 18
4.1

Triggering THE FINGER as an Effect via MIDI............................................................ 18

4.1.1
Ableton Live.....................................................................................18
4.1.2 Logic..............................................................................................18
4.1.3 Cubase SX / Nuendo ........................................................................19
4.1.4 FL Studio........................................................................................19
4.1.5 ProTools 8........................................................................................19

4.2

Generating MIDI with THE FINGER............................................................................ 19

5 Reference - Effect Types Specifics....................................................................................20

6 Credits............................................................................................................................21

THE FINGER IV

1 Welcome to THE FINGER!

THE FINGER is a powerful polyphonic effects machine, made specifically by Tim Exile for his
performance based manipulation, but is equally useful in recording and studio situations. THE
FINGER dynamically stacks up to 6 simultaneous effects in any order you chose. Each note
within the four middle octaves (C3-B6) has a specific effect with its own settings assigned
to it and the order you trigger the notes is the order the effects get layered. The effects can
be as expressive as you are. The velocity of each note can change the sound dramatically
and the Mod Wheel can be assigned to parameters that affect all the layered effects at once.
A Few Words by Tim Exile
Ive always been into the idea of playing electronics like you play acoustic instruments. I used
to sit at the back of class at school tapping out jungle breaks and edits. Thats when I fell
in love with my fingers. I want to be able to touch sounds with them. Not just read adverts
about touching sounds with them. I want to go on sound adventures by finger alone. Just a
pair of handpants in my palmsack.
I love it when sounds end up somewhere completely different from where they start off. I want
to be able to play these transitions with my fingers & keep wandering with the sound. I dont
want to end up back where I started. I dont wanna be on a leash like a goat chewing the same
patch of grass all day. I want to be a free goat. I wanna check out what that weird mountain
over there is like to be on not just look at.
With THE FINGER you can keep on transforming the sound as long as you like. You dont
have to go back home after 1 or 2 effects, wide awake and cursing your curfew. Just keep on
applying effects, looping, mangling, smoothing, modulating until the cows come home, and
all with those lovely fleshy pokey-hitty fingers of yours. You can be harsh, smooth, ambient
or jarring. Go wandering in the studio or on stage.
Get those fingers out in the wild! - Tim

THE FINGER 5

2 Content Description
THE FINGER consists of a bundle of REAKTOR Snapshots, all derived from a custom
REAKTOR Ensemble by Warp artist, Tim Exile. Each Snapshot has one custom effect for
each key within the four middle octaves (C3-B6) on the MIDI keyboard, all meant for realtime mangling of sound. Its an effect you can play like an instrument. And when you think
that any six of these effects can be combined in any order, the number of possibilities well
exceeds several hundred billion per REAKTOR Snapshot!
THE FINGER dynamically stacks effects in any order you chose. Each MIDI note has a specific
effect with its own settings assigned to it and the order you trigger the notes is the order the
effects get layered in, so chains can be arranged and re-arranged in no time. The effects are
expressive as you are. Any effect can be changed by the force of the velocity and position of
the Mod Wheel.

The Finger signal flow. Each Note triggers its own effect. Effects are layered on top of each other serially. The Mod
wheel and Global AR Envelope affect all played effects.

THE FINGER 6

Most of the 40+ sounds in THE FINGER are designed to be used as audio effect processors.
This means that those REAKTOR Snapshots do not create sound by themselves, but modify
an incoming audio signal instead. Consequently, you need to make sure to feed an audio signal into REAKTOR that you can apply the effects to. Because of the special MIDI interaction,
see section 4 on setting up THE FINGER in a host.
Although all the sounds can be used without direct MIDI input by using a combination of the
Twister Knobs and built in sequencers, all of the Snapshots benefit from receiving MIDI from
your keyboard, so dont skip that section.

THE FINGER 7

3 Interface Overview
About the Ensemble
THE FINGER ensemble allows you to setup custom effects to any MIDI note. To edit an effect you only have to trigger that effect by playing it with MIDI, turning a Twister Knob to the
correct note, or pressing the pad on the GUI for that note (you can use the octave display to
go to the correct octave). The controls are dynamically adjusted to the effect you play.
THE FINGER was designed as real performance effect! Because the controls are tied to the
last note played, its best to setup all the effects you plan to use ahead of time and use your
MIDI keyboard and Mod Wheel (CC1) to layer and tweak the effects in real time (the Mod
Wheel can be crucial for controlling all the effects you have layered at once). Save your configuration as a snapshot to ensure you can always get back to your settings. There are also
Copy, Paste and Initialize buttons to help you create a set of effects much quicker.

THE FINGER 8

3.1 Twister Section

1-4 Twister 1-4: Cycles through effects in octave 1-4 respectively when you twist the knob.
Effects are triggered with the velocity set by the Velocity knob and held for the amount
of time (16ths) set by the Hold knob after you stop twisting the knob.
5

Velocity: Velocity assigned to Twister notes.

Hold: The length of a note in 16ths sent from the Twister knobs.

THE FINGER 9

3.2 Global Envelope Section

Attack: Global amount of time effects take to crossfade in from the unprocessed input
signal to the processed signal when a key is pressed.

Release: Global amount of time effects take to crossfade out from the processed signal to
the unprocessed signal when a key is released.

THE FINGER 10

3.3 Keys Effect Parameters Section

Display of the active note for editing: This is tied to the last note played.

10-11 Parameter 1 & 2: Two custom parameters of the effect chosen in the Effect Type menu.
12

Effect Type menu:

Clicking on this area will open a list of al available effects. To assign an effect to the active
key, click on the effect name. To cancel, click out side the area.
THE FINGER 11

3.4 Modulation Envelope Section

13 Envelope type selector: The first envelope will fire one time. The second envelope will loop
beginning to end. The bottom type will ping-pong loop forward then back.
14 Envelope Sync button: When this button is on, the envelope will be quantized to 32nds.
1x32nd on the left and 64x32nds on the far right.
15 Envelope Time: The length of the Modulation Envelope.
16 Envelope to Parameters 1 & 2: A bi-polar amount (-100% to +100%) that the envelope will
effect each parameter on this keys effect.

THE FINGER 12

3.5 Mod Wheel Section

18-19

Mod Wheel to Parameters 1 & 2: A bi-polar amount (-100% to +100%) that the Mod
Wheel (CC1) will effect each parameter on this keys effect. Using this CC1 in
conjunction with these controls allows you to adjust the parameter depth of all active
effects at once by moving your Mod Wheel (CC1). This is great for real time
performance tweaking. For more info on sending MIDI to THE FINGER as an audio
effect, see section .

THE FINGER 13

3.6 Velocity Section

20-21 Velocity to Parameters 1 & 2: A bi-polar amount (-100% to +100%) that the note on
velocity will effect each parameter on this keys effect.
22

Velocity to Envelope Strength: Amount velocity affects the overall strength of the modulation
envelope. Low = velocity doesnt affect it at all. High = strength of the envelope
depends entirely on velocity.

23

Velocity to Envelope Time: Amount velocity effects modulation time.

24

Velocity to xFade: Amount that key velocity effects how much effected signal is mixed
with the original signal. Low = always crossfades to completely effected signal. High =
velocity dictates how far the signal is crossfaded to the effected signal. High velocity =
all the way. Low velocity = not much.

THE FINGER 14

3.7 Key Trigger Section

25 Trigger Pads for Notes C-B: The last note played is lit in yellow. You can click and hold any
of these pads to trigger the effect on them, also activating the Keys effect parameters
for that note. The area is always tied to the octave of the last note played. This area is
also useful for remembering what effect is assigned to which note when you are playing.
26 Next C Trigger Pad: Clicking the last C in the octave will trigger that note and forward the
Trigger Pads to the next octave. The octaves wrap from 8 to 0.

THE FINGER 15

27 Octave Navigation: The last octave played is lit in yellow. You can click on any octave to
navigate the Trigger Pads to that octave.

THE FINGER 16

3.8 Edit Section

28 COPY: Copies the current keys effect settings to the clipboard.

29 PASTE: Pastes the clipboard to the current keys effect.
30 INIT: Initializes the effect to a neutral setting. Trigging an effect after initializing will not
change the sound. Initialize is great for starting an effect from scratch.

THE FINGER 17

4 Use Cases
4.1 Triggering THE FINGER as an Effect via MIDI
Since THE FINGER is an extremely expressive effect layering machine, the best way to experience the effects is to play them yourself. THE FINGER responds especially well to Velocity
and the Mod Wheel (CC1), so even when using THE FINGER as an effect try controlling your
sound by triggering the effects manually from your MIDI keyboard and using your Mod Wheel.
Sending MIDI to an effect isnt always that straight-forward in all hosts so read the sections
below for a little help.

4.1.1 Ableton Live

In Ableton Live, insert the plug-in as an effect. Choose or create another MIDI track. Click on
the MIDI To menu on the MIDI track and select the track where the effect was inserted.
If there are more than one MIDI-enabled effects on the original track, you must select the
specific plug-in you want the MIDI to go to from the drop-down menu below the MIDI To
selection. Make sure you are recording enabled on the new MIDI track, or are using Monitor
In, to send the MIDI to the plug-in.

4.1.2 Logic
In Logic, first insert the plug-in as an audio instrument from the track sub-menu called AU
MIDI-controlled Effects. Then use the sidechain menu in the plug-in window to choose an
audio track to route into the plug-in. The MIDI will come from the sequences on the audio
instrument track (or live MIDI input if that track is selected in the Arrange window) and the
audio to be processed will come from the sidechain track.

THE FINGER 18

4.1.3 Cubase SX / Nuendo

In Steinberg products, first insert the plug-in as an effect and activate the plug-in. Select
the plug-in as the output device for one of your MIDI tracks from the output device menu.
The MIDI track will will now send MIDI to the effect plug-in. To send MIDI, make sure the
MIDI track is active, playing a clip or monitoring MIDI in.

4.1.4 FL Studio
In FL Studio, add the plug-in as an insert to the channel you want to process. In the plug-in
window, on the arrow next to the folder icon on the left in the header, select Show MIDI Port
from the drop-down. A new green area appears on the right of the plug-in wrappers header.
Drag on this area to select a specific port number. From FLs main menu select Channels
> Add one > MIDI Out. On the MIDI Out instrument, select the same port you used for the
plug-in. You can now send MIDI on from the MIDI out instruments track to the plug-in.

4.1.5 ProTools 8
Create one MIDI or audio channel with the plug-in used as an insert. Create a second track
for the incoming MIDI. In the new MIDI tracks Input/output section on the mixer, select our
insert. Now make sure you are recording on the new MIDI track (or use monitor to send MIDI
always).

4.2 Generating MIDI with THE FINGER

You can also generate MIDI messages with THE FINGER by using the Twister knobs. See
chapter 3.1 for a description of the Twister knobs functions.

THE FINGER 19

5 Reference - Effect Types Specifics

Effect title
Highpass
Bandpass
Lowpass
Boost
Cut
Cutboost
Boostcut
Sine
Ripped Cone
Distortion
Bias
Degrade
Ring/amp mod
Ring/amp mod
Free gate
Sync gate
Level/pan
Comb filter +
Comb filter X-comb
4-comb
4-comb stereo
Tempotrip
Tempoflip
Smudge
FM 180
Position Jitter
Putty
Snow
Pitch shift
Pitch shift jitter
Pitch random
Stretch
Stretch jitter
Reverser
Lose it
Wavetable >
Wavetable <>
Wavetable <
Loop >
Loop <>
Loop <

Effect Type
Filter
Filter
Filter
Filter
Filter
Filter
Filter
Waveshaper
Waveshaper
Waveshaper
Waveshaper
Waveshaper
Modulation
Modulation
Modulation
Modulation
Modulation
Delay
Delay
Delay
Delay
Delay
Delay
Delay
Delay
Delay
Granular
Granular
Granular
Granular
Granular
Granular
Granular
Granular
Granular
Granular
Wave sampler
Wave sampler
Wave sampler
Loop sampler
Loop sampler
Loop sampler

Parameter 1
Cutoff
Cutoff
Cutoff
Frequency
Frequency
Frequency
Frequency
Amount
Amount
Amount
Min
Sample rate
Frequency
Frequency
Rate
Rate
Level
Frequency
Frequency
Frequency 1
Frequency 1
Frequency 1
Length
Length
Time
Frequency
Jitter
Wobbly
Flake size
Pitch
Pitch
Pitch
Speed
Speed
Grain size
Dose
Loop point
Loop point
Loop point
Loop point
Loop point
Loop point

Parameter 2
Resonance
Resonance
Resonance
Boost
Cut
Amount
Amount
Cut
N/A
N/A
Max
Bit rate
Intensity
Intensity
Size
Size
Pan
Damping
Damping
Frequency 2
Frequency 2
Frequency 2
Slip rate
N/A
Diffusion
Amount
Grain size
Flabby
Blizzard
Grain size
Grain size
Randomness
Grain size
Grain size
Speed
Metabolism
Speed
Speed
Speed
Speed
Speed
Speed

Technical description
2-pole highpass filter with resonance
2-pole bandpass filter with resonance
2-pole lowpass filter with resonance
Swept EQ boost
Swept EQ cut
Dual swept EQ, cut before boost
Dual swept EQ, boost before cut
Sine waveshaping distortion
Simulates a ripped speaker cone
Non-linear distortion
Amplitude-stretches signal peaks
Sample rate decimate & bit crusher
Ring modulator/tremolo
Ring modulator/tremolo, wide stereo
Audio gate/chopper
Tempo-synced audio gate/chopper
Level & pan control
Comb filter with positive feedback
Comb filter with negative feedback
Cross-feeding comb filter
4 stacked comb filters
Stereo stacked comb filters
Tempo-modulated dub delay
Tempo-modulated delay
Reverb
Frequency modulated delay
Random time-shuffling of grains
Granular effect
Granular effect
Granular pitch shifter
Granular pitch shifter with grain jitter
Pitch randomizer
Temporary time stretcher
Temporary time stretcher with jitter
Grain reverser
Wonky granular effect
Forward looping wavetable
Forward-backward looping wavetable
Backward looping wavetable
Forward looping tempo-synced looper
Forward-backward looping tempo-synced looper
Backward looping tempo-synced looper

THE FINGER 20

6 Credits
REAKTOR Ensemble: Tim Exile
REAKTOR Snapshots: Denis Gkdag, Adam Hanley, Matt Jackson, and Tobias Menguser
Product Design: Matt Jackson, Adam Hanley, and Tobias Menguser
Graphics: Phirol, Gsta Wellmer
Skinning: Dietrich Pank
Testing: Dietrich Pank
Manual: Matt Jackson

THE FINGER 21